Montgomery is being celebrated this February as the BFI Southbank in
London screen a season of his films. There are only 17, but the BFI in
its wisdom is only screening 12 - the most well known ones:
RED RIVER,
THE SEARCH,
THE HEIRESS,
I CONFESS,
FROM HERE TO
ETERNITY,
RAINTREE COUNTY,
THE YOUNG LIONS,
SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER,
WILD
RIVER,
THE MISFITS,
FREUD, and an extended run of 33 screenings of
A
PLACE IN THE SUN.
So they are ignoring
THE BIG LIFT, the De Sica one with Jennifer
Jones in '54
INDESCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE,
LONELYHEARTS,
JUDGEMENT
AT NUREMBURG and his final, the odd
THE DEFECTOR.
The rather dull 1950
THE BIG LIFT (about the Berlin Airlift) got a few screenings on our TCM
recently, I had not seen it before; we hardly ever get to see the De
Sica now, and
LONELYHEARTS is such a rare move here I had not even heard
of it for a long time, but as luck would have it I got a copy a while
back and just watched it, its certainly a very peculiar film but Robert
Ryan, Myrna Loy and Maureen Stapleton all deliver as Monty seems rather
vacant, like he is in
SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, in those years after that
car crash. I will now though finally see
FREUD which should at least be
interesting, even if Clift did not have a pleasant shooting experience
with Huston here.
THE DEFECTOR turned up on tv a few times over the
years, but is hardly consequential, Monica Vitti
was originally cast in the role played by Macha Meril. It is a pity he did not live to star in Huston's REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE which he was supposed to do, with Taylor again, but of course Brando replaced him ...
 |
With Taylor during RAINTREE
by Bob Willoughby |
It would be good though to see RAINTREE COUNTY (a key 1957 movie for me back then, when 11) and WILD RIVER again on the
large screen ... Taylor and Remick are ideal co-stars for him, and I love that Kazan film, as per my other reviews on it here (Clift, Remick labels). Perhaps the new generation who may not have seen much
of Clift will see Monty as part of that triumvirate of great American
actors of the '50s, along with Brando and Dean, he is certainly as revered as they are ... and looked terrific in army outfits, which he wore quite a bit ...
 |
| WILD RIVER with Lee Remick |
Hawks' RED RIVER, Stevens' A PLACE IN THE SUN and Zinnemann's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY are of course American classics, with Monty at his zenith. I CONFESS is a rather turgid Hitchcock but not without merit, and I used to be obsessed over THE MISFITS .... I like Wyler's THE HEIRESS a lot too, a key late '40s movie, and of course what can one say about SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER has hasn't been said already.... THE YOUNG LIONS is now a bit of a plod (as we follow Clift, Dean and Brando through WWII), and NUREMBURG is of course the all-star Kramer drama with special guest-star concentration camp victims (Monty and Judy Garland, both beyond compelling). My pal Jerry is now going to lend me the Criterion issue of INDISCRETION (TERMINAL STATION) the 1954 De Sica, which has both the American (just 63 minutes after Selznick had finished with it) and longer Italian versions ...
The above is a thread of mine on the IMDB Classic Film Board, on the Clift season at the BFI in February. Monty has of course always been up there for me, with Dean and Monroe, and certainly more than Brando. The biographies on him are very revealing, not only about that car crash and his later dependancies, and also on that fascinating life cut short too early, at 45 in 1966. I have now seen LONELYHEARTS and FREUD, so here are initiial comments on these:
LONELYHEARTS: the book MISS LONELYHEARTS by Nathanael West is still of interest. This morning's newspaper carried this capsule review of it by writer Fay Weldon: "A black comedy but with nothing funny about it, a Depression (and depression) novel that is more apt today than ever, as a young (male) agony aunt takes on board the awfulness of life. Nothing changes. Once read, Miss Lonelyhearts is a book whic deserves to be rescued from its current obscurity".
The film is more of the same, a downbeat tale, oddly paced, with long scenes of people just talking - Clift with Myrna Loy (who drinks a lot), her cynical husband newspaper editor Shrike (Robert Ryan at his brooding best as in Ophuls' CAUGHT, CLASH BY NIGHT or BILLY BUDD) who sets up would-be journalist Clift as the new Miss Lonelyhearts .... Monty is a tad too old for the part really and often has that dazed look he has in his next, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER. These were his post-car accident years. Maureen Stapleton, in her debut, is powerful as the troubled woman who writes for advice, after seeing Clift with Ryan in a bar - she asks Ryan who Clift is and he tells her, so she knows who she is writing to. Would any advice columnist though set up a meeting with a person who writes for advice? This is a bad move as Stapleton's unhappy marriage to a crippled man leads to her take out her frustrations, including sexual, on the hapless Clift ..... an odd tale makes for an odd film, a Dore Schary production in 1958, directed by one Vincent J Donehue. One can see why it is has been so rarely seen since ...
Also long unseen is John Huston's 1962 FREUD (it didnt get to London till '63 when I imagine it did not hang around long), which now comes across like a brooding drama where Clift at 42 delivers his last major role, he was suffering with eye catatacts and other problems here and it was a troubled shoot for him. Young Susannah York (before TOM JONES) is very impressive as the main case he works on, Susan Kohner has nothing to do as Mrs Freud, and Rosalie Crutchley is sterling as ever as his mother. It looks terrific in moody monochrome and all that black outfits and sets recall the later THE ELEPHANT MAN. This is another story of medical people and hospitals.
This pseudo-biographical movie depicts 5 years from 1885 on in the life
of the Viennan psychologist Freud (1856-1939). At this time, most of his
colleagues refuse to cure hysteric patients, because they believe
they're just simulating to gain attention. But Freud learns to use
hypnosis to find out the reasons for the psychosis. His main patient is a
young woman who refuses to drink water and is plagued by always the
same nightmare.
It is of course the usual story of a girl loving her father too much, and the sexual hysteria of the time is nicely evoked, with its brothels and repression. An odd choice for Huston who was having a good run then in 1962 with popular well-regarded films we liked a lot (
HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON,
THE UNFORGIVEN,
THE MISFITS, he went on to
THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA among others). Photograhed by Douglas Slocombe, with a soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith. Monty delivers a passionate, involving portrait in an ambitious biopic which Huston (who also narrates) described as an "intellectual suspense story". It seems Jean-Paul Sartre worked uncredited on the screenplay. It is not a standard biopic of Freud but concentrates on his work in examining the effect of the subconscious mind on conscious actions - an idea believed preposterous at the time.
The
film uses memories and dreams (like Freud's with his mother) to arrive at the truth. The version I have runs to 140 minutes, but the BFI's brochures lists a 2 hour running time, there may be various versions around, I understand a lot of the dream sequences were cut to shorten the rather long running time. A fascinating curio now, and a companion piece to Huston's film on Toulouse-Lautrec and the
MOULIN ROUGE of that same era. LONELYHEARTS and FREUD are both very verbose films with the actors having to recite reams of dialogue to each other ... I wonder if FREUD was titled FREUD: THE SECRET PASSION to make it seem more risque?
Anne Bancroft, after her Oscar win (for THE MIRACLE WORKER, and before she essayed Mrs Robinson in THE GRADUATE), has one of her key roles as the very intense mother of eight children, as she wonders if her current husband, writer Peter Finch, is being unfaithful. He is of course, and with the annoying Philpot (a noteworthy early small role by Maggie Smith). He has also been having an affair with the wife of jealous friend James Mason, who plots his revenge. Jo (Bancroft) has a harrowing breakdown in Harrods store, and is later menaced at the hairdressers by a woman (Yootha Joyce) jealous of Jo's lavish lifestyle and good fortune. 
Her father is Cedric Hardwicke (his final role) and the cast also includes Alan Webb, Richard Johnson as Jo's previous husband, Eric Porter and more familiar faces.
Thats the plot in a nutshell, but it can hardly do justice to the Trash classic that is ZEE & CO, (or X, Y, AND ZEE) - an unlikely title for action director Brian G Hutton (but he had just directed Burton in WHERE EAGLES DARE) - this time, he puts a wild Elizabeth Tayor and dull Michael Caine through their paces, and a wan Susannah York, plus Margaret Leighton as a kind of aged hippie, and John Standing as the catty gay best friend, and young Michael Cashman (ex-EASTENDERS gay Colin) as the "poncy little fag" shop assistant.
The farrago was scripted by Edna O'Brien - hope she got paid a lot - and the whole thing gets wilder and wilder and funnier and funnier as Liz scheeches and brays as she plots to seduce Susannah herself, to get her away from husband Caine ..... Taylor seems to have a ball letting rip as the over-dressed vulgarian wife of stuffy architect Caine, but really her movie goddess days were coming to an end here in 1972; without a Zeffirelli, Losey or Mike Nichols to direct her she seems to have been encouraged to go way over the top here. This is a Trash Classic up there with the best of the worst - one to relish with THE LOVE MACHINE or THE OSCAR or even HARLOW .... 
Audrey Hepburn and Capucine were indeed good friends - muck-rakers are even trying to suggest more about them now, but we are not going into that, we don't do unconfirmed gossip here. Both of them though had relationships with William Holden - it is now documented that he and Audrey had a romance during SABRINA in 1954 but due to his vasectomy she went on to marry Mel Ferrer. She and Holden were teamed again in PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES (filmed in 1962 but not released until 1964, I found it unwatchable when finally caught up with it recently) but he was ageing rapidly as drinking a lot then .... By the early Sixties he was involved with French model turned actress Capucine - one of our favourites here, as per label items on her - and they did two films together. 
THE LION was filmed in 
A new old IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST! 
The blurb for Volume 4 of dvd pack (4 disks containing 12 plays and reasonably priced) of ARMCHAIR THEATRE says: "Pioneering, immensely influential and often challenging, ARMCHAIR THEATRE was (English) ITV's flagship drama anthology series. Bringing high-quality drama to the viewing public (back in the era when there were just two television channels and in black and white) the series easily demonstrated the network's potential to rival the BBC's drama output, with diverse and powerful plays showcasing some of Britain's most gifted writers and directors.
This set comprises 12 plays featuring performances by some of the era's most celebrated and accomplished actors - including Susannah York, Colin Blakely, Ian Holm, Billie Whitelaw, Donald Pleasence, Terry-Thomas, Irene Handl, Patrick Macnee, Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier, among many others, including American import Carroll Baker (my pal Jerry will love this!). This volume includes early plays by both Jack Rosenthal, Ted Willis, Angus Wilson, Alun Owen, Len Deighton and John Hopkins, as well as Terry Southern." 
Here in 1964 we have Pamela Brown (whom I like so much in I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING) who is a formidable Bracknell, with the fabulously camp Fenella Fielding (CARRY ON SCREAMING etc) as her daughter Gwendolyn and young Susannah York is a perfect Cecily. Then theres Irene Handl as Miss Prism and Wilfrid Brambell as the Canon. The boys are Patrick Macnee (THE AVENGERS) and Ian Carmichael. Perfect 1964 casting! and it all works a treat - they certainly do Oscar justice. Lovely art nouveau set too for Algernon's apartment. The script had to be tailored to fit a 90 minute slot, but the BBC did the same with their Oscar productions in that OSCAR WILDE COLLECTION, but al the lines we know and love are here ....
TOM JONES of course is utter bliss, a perfect costume version of the huge Fielding novel, but also capturing that early 1960s spirit too, as Tony Richardson's inventive direction deconstructs and re-creates the novel, using all those split cuts, razor sharp editing, characters talking to the camera and so on. Albert Finney is perfect here, and has great scenes with Susannah York delightful as Sophie Western, Diane Cilento, Joyce Redman (that food scene at the inn!) , and Joan Greenwood as the very demanding Lady Bellaston: "Sir, I know not of country matters, but in town it is considered impolite to keep a lady waiting". Indeed! Tom and Lady Bellaston meet at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (below), where as Micheal McLiammoir's fruity narration puts it people go "to do and to be undone".
One does not quite see Angela Lansbury as a party girl, but she starts off as a fastidious widow, who soon starts to let her hair down. Anne Baxter though is saddled with Borgnine .... it was filmed in Australia (where Baxter had moved to for some years, during a marriage, which caused a hiatus in her career (detailed in her memoir "Intermission" - on her return she was accepting smaller parts as in CIMARRON and WALK ON THE WILD SIDE). It is from a play (by Ray Lawler) and directed by Leslie Norman (father of tv critic Philip). The title refers to the dolls Baxter's character collects, one for each summer ... 
Montgomery is being celebrated this February as the BFI Southbank in
London screen a season of his films. There are only 17, but the BFI in
its wisdom is only screening 12 - the most well known ones:
The film is more of the same, a downbeat tale, oddly paced, with long scenes of people just talking - Clift with Myrna Loy (who drinks a lot), her cynical husband newspaper editor Shrike (Robert Ryan at his brooding best as in Ophuls' CAUGHT, CLASH BY NIGHT or BILLY BUDD) who sets up would-be journalist Clift as the new Miss Lonelyhearts .... Monty is a tad too old for the part really and often has that dazed look he has in his next, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER. These were his post-car accident years. Maureen Stapleton, in her debut, is powerful as the troubled woman who writes for advice, after seeing Clift with Ryan in a bar - she asks Ryan who Clift is and he tells her, so she knows who she is writing to. Would any advice columnist though set up a meeting with a person who writes for advice? This is a bad move as Stapleton's unhappy marriage to a crippled man leads to her take out her frustrations, including sexual, on the hapless Clift ..... an odd tale makes for an odd film, a Dore Schary production in 1958, directed by one Vincent J Donehue. One can see why it is has been so rarely seen since ... 
It is of course the usual story of a girl loving her father too much, and the sexual hysteria of the time is nicely evoked, with its brothels and repression. An odd choice for Huston who was having a good run then in 1962 with popular well-regarded films we liked a lot (HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON, THE UNFORGIVEN, THE MISFITS, he went on to THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA among others). Photograhed by Douglas Slocombe, with a soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith. Monty delivers a passionate, involving portrait in an ambitious biopic which Huston (who also narrates) described as an "intellectual suspense story". It seems Jean-Paul Sartre worked uncredited on the screenplay. It is not a standard biopic of Freud but concentrates on his work in examining the effect of the subconscious mind on conscious actions - an idea believed preposterous at the time.
The
film uses memories and dreams (like Freud's with his mother) to arrive at the truth. The version I have runs to 140 minutes, but the BFI's brochures lists a 2 hour running time, there may be various versions around, I understand a lot of the dream sequences were cut to shorten the rather long running time. A fascinating curio now, and a companion piece to Huston's film on Toulouse-Lautrec and the MOULIN ROUGE of that same era. LONELYHEARTS and FREUD are both very verbose films with the actors having to recite reams of dialogue to each other ... I wonder if FREUD was titled FREUD: THE SECRET PASSION to make it seem more risque? 
To round off my Dirk Bogarde day, another round of images ... those romantic poses from A TALE OF TWO CITIES, the notorious leather trousers in THE SINGER NOT THE SONG, in repose on I COULD GO ON SINGING, with Alan Bates in THE FIXER and Michael York in JUSTINE, and with Susannah York in OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR.
